


until the gravity's too much

by perfectlyrose



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Canon Compliant, Hurt Keith (Voltron), Hurt/Comfort, Keith: conceal don't feel, M/M, Pining Shiro (Voltron), Post-Episode: s02e08 The Blade of Marmora, Pre-Relationship, Shiro: worry intensifies, a bit of, for added flavor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-06
Updated: 2019-04-06
Packaged: 2020-01-05 11:46:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18365360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perfectlyrose/pseuds/perfectlyrose
Summary: Shiro catches Keith’s full body wince when Red lands, despite the lion setting down as gently as she could.“You good?” he whispers as Keith slowly hauls himself to his feet, ignoring Shiro’s outstretched hand.Keith nods and then gestures for Shiro and Kolivan to precede him down to meet the team.Shiro hesitates. “Do you want to go to the pod? Your shoulder didn’t look good and I can handle the meeting.”“No, I can do this. Let’s go.”Keith tries to hide the extent of his injuries after the Trials. Shiro just wants to take care of him.





	until the gravity's too much

**Author's Note:**

> been wanting to write a post-bom aftermath fic with a.... very injured Keith and worried Shiro and i finally made it happen!

One of the Blade members, still masked, leads Keith and Shiro to a small room and tells them they have fifteen dobashes before the way is open for them to fly back out of the base.

Keith barely hears him, barely hears the terse response Shiro gives. All of his focus is on staying upright and on the blade, now back in its familiar dagger form, in his hand.

“Keith?”

He blinks, looks up. Shiro is in front of him now. He doesn’t know when that happened.

“God, you look…” he trails off, swallowing hard, and Keith can only imagine. He feels like he’s been stepped on by all the lions in succession and then stabbed a few times for good measure. “I wish we had time to patch you up but we need to get off this base. The pods are probably better with how beat up you are, anyways.”

“Probably,” Keith rasps out. “Is there a medkit in here?”

Shiro looks away to assess the room and locates a medkit next to the stack of Keith’s armor on the cot. He steps away to grab it and Keith sways.

“Hey, do you want to sit?”

Keith takes a moment to focus in on Shiro again. “Not if you want me to be able to stand again in a few minutes.”

“Okay, okay.” His hand gently grasps Keith’s elbow, keeping him steady. “What do you want out of the kit?”

“Painkiller. The mild one, need to be able to fly Red back. Stronger one knocks me out.”

Shiro roots around in the kit, cursing lowly. “Can’t read any of the labels.”

“Let me see,” Keith rasps. “Been studying.”

“Course you have,” Shiro says, fond smile sneaking onto his face as he brings the kit closer. He’d watched Keith cycle through different language interests at the Garrison. “Learning Altean too?”

“Yeah. Harder though.” He picks up a pill bottle and squints at the label. “This one.”

Shiro puts the kit down while Keith struggles to open the bottle, his hands trembling.

“Hey, let me help?” Shiro reaches out and wraps his hand around the pill bottle. Keith releases it with a huff.

“Don’t have much of a choice.”

Shiro shakes a few pills out into his palm. “How many?”

“Two.” 

Shiro tilts the extras back into the bottle and presses the two red capsules into Keith’s palm. Keith dryswallows them, making Shiro wince.

“You have a choice, Keith,” Shiro says, returning to his earlier comment. “If you want me to step out, I will.”

Keith shakes his head, hoping it will clear some of the fuzz. “No. I’m going to need help getting my armor on.”

“Do you want out of that suit?”

“Don’t have time for that. Armor should fit over it fine. I can just stow my undersuit on Red.”

Shiro nods and reaches for the red-accented greaves. “Legs first.”

“Have at it. I’m just,” he clenches his jaw, “gonna work on staying standing.”

Worry is written all over Shiro’s face when he looks up from fastening the left greave. “Keith, we can stay here and get medical attention for you. Once the path is open, we can send the others a message.”

“And tell them that I got so beat up that I am willingly submitting to medical attention? They would probably immediately assume things are,” he winces when Shiro sets the right cuisse into place, “very wrong.”

“They are,” Shiro mutters.

“I had to do it,” Keith says. “I couldn’t…”

“I know,” Shiro soothes, standing back up. “I understand.”

Keith tilts forward and rests his forehead against Shiro’s chest. “I didn’t mean to be selfish.”

Shiro wraps his arms around him, runs a soothing hand lightly up and down his spine. “You weren’t being selfish, Keith. I don’t think that at all.”

There’s a sniffle and then Keith’s talking again. “But you said…”

Shiro sucks in a breath, realizing that Keith hasn’t had the time to process and doesn’t know that the hologram of Shiro that he saw was just that… a hologram.

“Keith, that wasn’t me.” He pulls back so he can look Keith in the eye. “It was a hologram created by the suit. It wasn’t me. I wouldn’t say those things to you. I wouldn’t leave just because you want to know about your past.”

“Okay.” Keith’s voice is small, wavering on the two syllables.

Shiro wants to spend more time convincing him but they don’t have any. Keith is in pain and shock and they’re supposed to fly out of here in about five dobashes.

“Let’s get the rest of your armor on.”

Keith nods. Shiro attaches the vambrace and rerebrace on his left arm first and then the right, hesitating as he gets a better look at the deep slash in Keith’s shoulder.

“Should we put something on this? It’s still bleeding.”

“No time,” Keith grits out. “I’ll deal.”

Shiro grits his teeth but fastens the chestpiece on anyways. “You good to fly?”

“Have to be.” Shiro gets the impression that Keith would shrug if it wouldn’t hurt his shoulder so much. “Red won’t let me get us in any trouble.”

“I know. You’re the only one I trust to fly us through that mess.”

A Blade shows up to collect them before Keith can respond. Shiro feels like he’s holding his breath the whole way back to the castle, trying to keep an eye on Keith without letting on to him or Kolivan that he’s hovering.

Keith is just trying to stay focused. The painkillers are barely making a dent in the sharp aches of his injuries. Piloting is making his shoulder scream. He just has to get them back to the castle, back home, and then things will be better.

Shiro catches Keith’s full body wince when Red lands, despite the lion setting down as gently as she could.

“You good?” he whispers as Keith slowly hauls himself to his feet, ignoring Shiro’s outstretched hand.

Keith nods and then gestures for Shiro and Kolivan to precede him down to meet the team. 

Shiro hesitates. “Do you want to go to the pod? Your shoulder didn’t look good and I can handle the meeting.”

“No, I can do this. Let’s go.”

Shiro gives him a long look but eventually heads down the ramp, Kolivan beside him and Keith following behind.

Every step is a new agony but Keith keeps his head up and his gait even. The rest of the paladins need to meet Kolivan without the baggage of Keith being injured on the Blade of Marmora base.

He watches Kolivan and Allura talk, only half listening as he tries to cover up his pain with his normal stony façade. He tunes back in when Allura invites Kolivan up to the bridge to continue discussing the Blades’ plan and how Voltron fits into it. He sees the worried look Shiro throws him as he follows everyone else but the other man stays quiet.

He’s pretty sure Shiro thinks he’s mostly dragging due to exhaustion, not pain. If Shiro knew or suspected all the injuries hidden beneath the Blades suit, he would be dragging him off to a pod regardless of Keith’s protests, alliance or no. It’s why Keith needs to keep quiet and grit his teeth against the pain for a little bit longer. This alliance between the Blades and Voltron is more important than his injuries.

Shiro and Keith are the last ones to enter the bridge. He watches Keith out of the corner of his eye, noting how the younger paladin is leaning against one of the chairs instead of taking a seat. Shiro enters the discussion with Allura and Kolivan at the first snappish comment from the princess and tries to tamp down his worry and move things along so he can get Keith to the infirmary and then bed as soon as possible.

The voices of his team and their visitor slip over Keith without sinking in. He has no idea how long the talks have been going on or if progress has been made when Kolivan takes advantage of a lull in the discussion to call for a break.

“We have a full quintant until I can return to our base and it has already been a tiring day for us all. The Red Paladin, especially.” He nods towards Keith, who is pale and entirely relying on the seat in front of him to keep himself upright at this point. “I believe it is only his Galra blood that is keeping him standing.”

Keith’s focus sharpens as he hears the hissing inhales of his teammates. He blinks rapidly as his panic spins in a whole new direction, gunning into overdrive before he can do anything about it. He’s been so worried about keeping his injuries hidden that he forgot to worry about  _ this _ .

He hasn’t even had a chance to  _ think _ about the bombshell the Blade dropped on him.

“His  _ what _ ?” Allura all but growls.

Kolivan blinks. “The Red Paladin went through the Trials of Marmora while on our base and awoke one of our blades. This is only possible if he is of Galra descent.”

Allura swings her gaze to Keith, blue eyes blazing with anger and betrayal. “How long have you known? I  _ trusted _ you.”

The past tense spears into Keith’s heart and twists. He can’t look at the other paladins, doesn’t want to see their faces painted with shock and hate. “I didn’t-” his voice cracks and he tightens his grip on the chair, looking down at his left hand’s whiteknuckled hold. “I didn’t know.”

He can feel all the eyes on him, the glares of those he had started to think could be family cutting him to shreds.

“What else are you hiding?” Allura hisses. “Are you even on our side?”

“ _ Allura _ ,” Shiro cuts in, voice harsh. “That’s enough. Keith didn’t know. He just told you he didn’t know.”

“And I should just take his word for it?”

“Yes.” His voice is a whip, lashing out at the princess since Keith won’t, can’t. Keith hears him step closer. “You would’ve ten dobashes ago.”

“I didn’t know he was Galra then.” The word sounds awful in her mouth, a weapon thrown with deadly accuracy at the already fragile paladin.

Keith can feel his face crumble. He is too tired, in too much pain to keep his façade up now.

“He is still the same person you’ve known this whole time,” Shiro tells her. Maybe he’s addressing everyone. Keith can’t lift his head to find out. “He also fought multiple members of the Blades of Marmora, on his own, for over a quintant without rest while we were down there.”

“He did well,” Kolivan adds. “We did not expect one so small to last as long as he did or fight so well.”

“Your Trials are battle based?” Pidge breaks her silence, curiosity getting the better of her.

“Yes. Knowledge or death. Keith wanted knowledge that we possessed, so he was required to go through the trials.”

Someone sucks in a breath and asks another question but Keith doesn’t know who. Everything is starting to go fuzzy around the edges. He’s not sure he can move his right arm anymore, it’s a deadweight at his side.

“I’m taking him to the infirmary,” Shiro tells everyone, tone brooking no argument. Lance, Hunk, and Pidge, please show Kolivan to the kitchen for some refreshments and then make sure he has a room.”

“I’ll prepare a room,” Coran says. “Come with me, Kolivan, paladins.”

Shiro makes his way over to Keith as the team leaves, dread crawling up his spine as he takes in his glassy eyed expression. “Come on, let’s get you patched up,” he says softly, for only Keith to hear. He sees the poisonous glare Allura throws their direction before sweeping out of the room and winces.

A few too many seconds pass before Keith can muster an answer. “I don’t know that I can make it down there.” He’s definitely pushed himself past his limits at this point.

Shiro rests a light hand on Keith’s back and doesn’t miss his flinch. He curses himself as he realizes that Keith is hurt far more than he’s letting on, not just exhausted beyond reason. Of course he is. He can’t believe he didn’t catch on to this before now. “Can I carry you or will that hurt too much?”

“Everything hurts,” Keith rasps out. “Carrying me is going to be quicker.”

“Okay, let’s get this over with then.” Shiro maneuvers himself into position and then lifts Keith, one arm beneath his knees and the other under his armpit.

Keith lets out a horrific noise as Shiro lifts him.

“Shit, shit. Keith. What’s wrong?”

“Shoulder,” he grits out. “It moved.”

“What can I do?” Shiro asks. He adjusts his hold minutely, hoping to find a less painful grip.

Keith leans his forehead against Shiro’s chestplate. “Just get me to the infirmary. I’ll survive.”

Shiro’s lips press into a hard line. He wants to argue that Keith deserves to be comfortable, not just endure all the pain thrown at him, but now isn’t the time. He whispers an apology and sets off for the infirmary at a fast clip, trying his best not to jostle Keith overly much. Balancing speed and comfort is nearly impossible and he feels Keith press closer to his chest as he moves. 

He doesn’t make a sound the entire way to the infirmary. 

The doors slide open with a soft metallic swish on their approach. Shiro heads straight for the exam table and sets Keith down on it. When he pulls back far enough to see him again, Shiro’s heart sinks. Keith’s eyes are scrunched closed and he’s biting down hard on his bottom lip to avoid making more noise. There are tear tracks on his face.

“Hey, hey,” he says softly, waiting for Keith to acknowledge him. His metal hand settles at the small of Keith’s back, helping him stay seated upright. He cups his cheek with his left hand. “We’re here and it’s just me, Keith. You don’t have to keep hiding how much it hurts.”

Keith lets out a long, shuddering breath but doesn’t open his eyes. “I had to,” he mumbles. 

“Why?” Shiro asks. He pauses a moment to collect himself before letting out the rest of his question. “Why didn’t you tell me it was this bad?”

“We had to finish securing the alliance.”

“We could’ve done that after getting you in a pod,” Shiro argues.

Keith shakes his head. “No. Team might’ve been less open to negotiating if they’d known I’d been injured on the Blades base. The alliance with the Blades is more important.”

“You being okay is important too, Keith.” The words burst out of Shiro, drenched in his worry and frustration. “Look at me. Please, Keith.” Keith’s eyes open and it takes longer for them to focus on Shiro than it should. “You’re important.”

Keith shakes his head. Shiro can feel the fine tremors wracking his whole body. “You heard Kolivan. I’m one of them, Shiro. I’m  _ Galra _ . I’m…” he cuts himself off with a hard swallow and closes his eyes. He doesn’t want to see how the words hit Shiro. “They all hate me now. I wouldn’t blame you if you did too, after everything they did.”

“I don’t hate you, Keith,” Shiro rushes to tell him. He needs to start treating Keith’s wounds, needs to get him in a pod, but making sure he knows he is still wanted, still  _ Keith _ , is essential. “I could never hate you. You’re still you and you’re my best friend.”

Shiro wishes there was a way for him to communicate that Keith is absolutely everything to him, that he unknowingly holds Shiro’s heart in his capable hands. Even if he knew the right words, now isn’t the time to offer them to Keith.

“No one else hates you either,” Shiro continues. “They were just surprised. Kolivan didn’t exactly break the news gently.” He runs his thumb over Keith’s cheekbone, careful over the yellowing bruise forming there. “They’ll come around and be back to normal before you know it.”

“Don’t lie to me, Shiro. Allura hates me now. I was there for her reaction.”

He hesitates. “She might take a little longer than the others but she’ll realize that you’re still you and still her friend and teammate. We just have to give it time.”

“Always the optimist.” The tease lands weakly but Shiro smiles anyways.

“Only when you force me to be,” he says. “Now, come on let’s get you back out of this armor and into the pod.”

Shiro strips off Keith’s armor as quickly as he can, murmuring quiet platitudes the whole time, hoping to soothe him a little bit. Every flinch from Keith feels like a dagger to his heart. The paladin armor off and in a pile on the floor, Shiro eyes the gash on Keith’s shoulder again. It’s still bleeding sluggishly and Keith’s arm is hanging heavy at his side.

“How does this suit come off?” Shiro asks.

“Pressure valves in the back and then the weird space zipper thing like the undersuits,” Keith says, face pressed against Shiro’s shoulder.

Shiro fumbles with the pressure valves until he hears them hiss, followed by a similar noise from Keith.

“You okay?” Shiro asks.

“Feels weird,” Keith mumbles.

“Okay, let’s get the rest of this off and then one of the pod suits on.”

Shiro draws the zipper down to Keith’s tailbone and then starts peeling the fabric off his arms with as much caution as possible. Getting it past his shoulder wound is the worst part, but once that’s been accomplished Shiro pulls it down to his waist.

He sucks in a breath as he takes in the collection of bruises and cuts littered over Keith’s torso. “I thought the suit was armored,” he whispers, horrified at the marks of violence, knowing he watched them all being inflicted without ever realizing how much damage was being caused.

“It is, just not as much as our paladin armor,” Keith says. “And the Blades knew all the weak spots.”

Shiro skims his fingers over the large purpling mark on the left side of Keith’s ribs, recoiling when Keith flinches. “Bruised or broken?”

“Not sure,” Keith admits. Everything is still fuzzy around the edges and it’s all he can do to focus on and answer Shiro’s questions. Shiro is the only clear thing right now and Keith reaches out to grasp at his shoulder with his functioning hand.

Shiro takes a deep breath and tugs at the suit hanging around Keith’s waist. “Can you lift up for me for a sec?”

Keith uses his grip on his shoulder to leverage himself up just a fraction of an inch. Shiro yanks the suit down before he loses the rest of his strength. He can feel himself shaking now and a bone-deep cold is creeping over him.

Shiro tries to step away from the exam table and Keith tightens his hold, letting out an involuntary noise of panic.

“Hey, hey, I’m just going to grab the pod suit. I’m not going anywhere,” Shiro soothes.

Keith doesn’t let go. He weakly tugs Shiro closer. “Don’t leave.”

Shiro wraps his arms around Keith, gentle as anything as he tries to avoid the worst of his injuries. “I won’t, I promise. I’m not going to leave, Keith.”

His breath catches on a sob. “You did before.”

“It was a hologram, Keith, I promise.” Shiro doesn’t know what to do with the information that him walking away is one of Keith’s greatest fears, that he might also be one of his greatest hopes. All he can do right now is can try to assuage the fear in this moment.

“You left before,” Keith says, words starting to slur together. Shiro feels his heart drop to his feet. “You didn’t come back when you promised. You were gone.”

Shiro’s arms tighten around him. They’ve never really talked about what happened with Keith between the Kerberos launch and Shiro crashing back down to Earth. He swallows hard. “I’m here now. I’m sorry I didn’t make it back on time, but I came back, Keith. You saved me, remember? I’m came back and now we’re here.” 

He wants to tell him that he’ll always come home to him, that he’ll always fight to come back to him but the words stick in his throat. Later, he promises himself, he’ll tell Keith all of this later. They have time.

Keith presses his face further into the crook of Shiro’s neck. “I know.”

“I’m not leaving again,” Shiro promises. “I’m not going anywhere, Keith.”

“Even now that I’m Galra?” The words escape Keith before he can think to hold them back. “They  _ hurt _ you, Shiro. They hurt you so much.”

Shiro pulls back to look Keith in the eye. “It wasn’t you, though.  _ You  _ didn’t hurt me. And right now you’re the one hurt. Please let me get you in the pod?”

Keith’s voice is shaky as he agrees and finally lets Shiro step away to grab a pod suit. Shiro pulls it up his legs and then helps him to his feet so he can pull it up the rest of the way. Keith knows he’s not supporting any of his own weight, but Shiro isn’t going to let him fall. He trusts that much.

He barely notices that his face is wet with tears again.

“Ready?” Shiro asks.

“Will you be here when I get out?” He doesn’t want to stumble out of this false sleep to an empty room or a hostile face.

“I will. I promise.” Shiro doesn’t plan on leaving the room while Keith’s in the pod. He knows how much the other man hates being in the small space, left vulnerable and unprotected and alone. “Maybe the others will be too.”

Keith shakes his head as Shiro mostly carries him to the pod. “You can’t make them accept this, Shiro. You can’t make people like me.”

“They already like you,” Shiro tells him. “They just need a bit of time to process.”

Keith snorts as he’s placed into the pod. “Me too.”

Shiro cups his cheek, wiping tears aways. “As soon as you get out, I’ll make sure you have whatever time you need, okay?”

“Okay.”

“See you on the other side, hotshot,” Shiro says, pulling out an old nickname just to see Keith quirk an exasperated smile at him.

“Yeah, okay, oldtimer.”

Shiro smiles at him as he closes the pod and turns it on. As soon as it beeps the initialization sequence, ensuring that Keith has gone under and diagnostics have begun, he rests his forehead against the glass and lets himself fall apart for just a minute.

He needs to be strong for Keith when he gets out, needs to provide support as he figures things out, but right now Shiro needs a moment to deal with the fact that he watched the man he loves fight until he passed out today, that he had to hold him as he tried not to fall apart.

Keith is stubborn and strong and loyal and Shiro loves all those things about him. It hurt to see all those traits used against him over the course of the Trials and their aftermath. Shiro aches to shower Keith in reassurances that his newly discovered alien heritage doesn’t change who he is, to hold him as close as Keith will let him and continue promising that he’s not going anywhere and that the hologram’s words weren’t anything Shiro would ever say to him.

Shiro takes a deep breath and takes a step back when he feels like he can breathe regularly again.

He has questions about the blade Keith awakened and why Keith never mentioned it, but Shiro’s curiosity is secondary to making sure his best friend is okay even after all his physical wounds are healed. The pods do nothing to soothe the mental and emotional hurts they endure in this war and Keith is likely to pretend those aren’t important, just as he had with his physical injuries.

Shiro takes a seat on the infirmary floor and settles in to wait for Keith to wake up.

**Author's Note:**

> come have emotions at me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/LionessNapping)!


End file.
